SpaceX’s Starship rocket makes first orbital test flight

BOCA CHICA, TEXAS, REDMOND, WASHINGTON, MOON, 29 SEPTEMBER 2026 —

SpaceX’s Starship rocket achieves first orbital flight, deploying Starlink satellites in milestone test

The achievement shows SpaceX’s ambition to dominate low-Earth orbit operations, with Starship designed to carry 60 Starlink V3 satellites per launch—20 times the capacity of its Falcon 9 rocket, the workhorse of SpaceX’s current satellite deployments. The company operates around 11,000 active Starlink satellites in orbit, dwarfing competitors like Eutelsat OneWeb’s 650 satellites, and Musk has previously stated that Starlink could eventually deliver a majority of the world’s internet in countries where it operates.

With Starship’s orbital debut, SpaceX is accelerating its push to reduce launch costs, increase deployment speed, and expand its profitable Starlink business, which remains its only revenue-generating segment as of the second quarter of this year.

The test flight began at 7:48 a.m. local time (8:48 a.m. ET), with the Super Heavy booster executing a "soft splashdown" off the coast of Starbase shortly after liftoff. The Starship upper stage continued its ascent, reaching orbit at 8:15 a.m. local time, though one of its vacuum engines failed during suborbital trajectory. Despite the setback, the mission proceeded, with the spacecraft splashdown occurring at approximately 10:58 a.m.

local time—earlier than planned—rather than the intended multi-orbit flight and landing off the coast of Chile. SpaceX employees at Starbase cheered loudly as the rocket lifted off, signaling the company’s confidence in the progress, even amid technical challenges.

Starship’s development has been a decade-long endeavor, with Musk originally targeting orbital capability in 2022 and satellite deployment in 2023. By November 2024, he had revised expectations, stating that SpaceX would conduct at least one Starship flight every two weeks by the end of 2025. While Monday’s flight represented a major milestone, the company has yet to demonstrate full reusability and reliability of the Super Heavy-Starship system, a critical requirement for commercial viability.

The 13 previous test flights had focused on suborbital hops and controlled descents, with none attempting a full orbital mission until now.

The success of this test flight holds immediate implications for SpaceX’s Starlink expansion, as the V3 satellites—manufactured at the company’s Redmond, Washington, facility—feature twice the power output of earlier models, thanks to larger solar arrays. These satellites are designed to transmit data more rapidly, enhancing Starlink’s performance for subscribers while reducing latency.

With Starship’s massive payload capacity, SpaceX can now accelerate satellite deployment, potentially overwhelming competitors and solidifying its dominance in the global satellite internet market, which is projected to grow as governments and enterprises seek alternative broadband solutions.

Beyond Starlink, Starship is central to SpaceX’s NASA contracts, including the Artemis program, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon’s surface by 2026. The rocket is slated for a major uncrewed test flight next year as part of NASA’s lunar lander development, with Starship intended to serve as the primary launch vehicle for crewed missions.

Additionally, SpaceX’s Chief Operating Officer, Gwynne Shotwell, revealed in August at the All-In Summit that the company plans to use Starship to deploy "AI compute satellites" by 2027, positioning itself at the forefront of space-based artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The $2 trillion-valued company, which went public in June via the largest IPO in history, is now poised to leverage Starship’s success to further expand its market dominance. While Monday’s flight fell short of the multi-orbit, transoceanic landing originally planned, the orbital insertion and satellite deployment represent a critical validation of Starship’s design.

The next phase will focus on refining reusability, with SpaceX aiming to increase flight frequency and reduce costs—key factors in its long-term strategy to monopolize orbital launches, lunar missions, and next-generation satellite networks. The company’s progress will be closely watched by regional competitors in Asia, including Malaysia’s Astro and MEASAT, as well as global players in the satellite broadband and space economy sectors.

Related: SpaceX